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World of Warcraft Beta Dissected
larsoncc writes "Fatman Games has published an absolutely massive hands-on preview of Blizzard's PC MMO title World of Warcraft, now that the game's NDA has expired with the commencement of the public Beta. Will MMORPG players drool over the chance to control a Succubus? Yeah, I know - obvious answer!"
My moms once husbands son has tried the alpha, and it's really nice, he says.
This page has an alternative to the alpha/beta server that Blizzard is running. I haven't tried it myself, but I have read that it lacks of content.
Yep, same ol', same ol':
obPennyArcade link.
"Gabe's going to cancel his account when he finds out that it takes twice the experience to get from this level to this level, or the materials you worked so hard to get are destroyed because of some arbitrary roll. For you and me, hey, maybe we don't mind that kind of thing. Maybe we hate ourselves already and see the genre as a way to work off spiritual debt, like a karmic gym. Regular people, a definition I don't usually apply to Gabe, but whatever - regular people know that things like that are bullshit."
Sounds like another "toss your skills and critical thinking out the window" game. It's unlikely I'll be purchasing it.
Blizzard has yet to ever revolutionize a genre. They built their name on taking the tried and true, simplifying it a bit, and heaping on the polish. They take a few evolutionary steps, and round off the corners.
Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo - none of these franchises really did anything 'new' or 'exciting'. What they did, they did well, and they did with a distinctive style.
Excuse me? The RTS genre was hardly well established when Blizzard released the original Warcraft - it is only preceded by two games: Herzog Zwei and Dune II, so they most certainly did put a new twist on an genre that was in its infancy. Check your history here.
Many people knock Diablo as a dumbed down rogue-like, but it undeniably started off the higly popular genre of action-RPG, which has a play style that is much more adrenalyn-based than the cerebral style of the rogue-like. Prior to Diablo RPGs were stuck somewhere in CRPG Ultima*, or console Final Fantasy* copycats.
Tycho's paragraph was a bit disjointed. That quote you posted was directed at previous MMORPGs, not WoW. He was commenting on how Blizzard's offering is more humane in that respect.
Full Quote:
"The word which constantly comes to my mind when considering the game is "humane." I have quite a lot of patience for games of this type, I don't mind going to a town and asking every medieval jackhole I see where I can find the cathedral. Gabe's not going to do that. That sort of thing isn't fun for most people. Gabe's going to cancel his account when he finds out that it takes twice the experience to get from this level to this level, or the materials you worked so hard to get are destroyed because of some arbitrary roll. For you and me, hey, maybe we don't mind that kind of thing. Maybe we hate ourselves already and see the genre as a way to work off spiritual debt, like a karmic gym. Regular people, a definition I don't usually apply to Gabe, but whatever - regular people know that things like that are bullshit. So why do we consent to them? What's more, why do developers assail us with these notions? Part of it is, I think, a twisted sense of tradition - the games before did it. Part of it is that is keeps a person - a certain kind of person, at least - onboard for more suffering. Maybe there's some kind of grind in the upper levels I haven't reached yet. Maybe at level 30, you start losing experience when you die or some other antique convention of the genre. I doubt it."
Er... Maybe I've got my dates and timelines mixed up, but I think action RPG's were around on consoles for quite a while before Diablo came along...
This is a quote taken a bit out of context. One actually puts it in context and it argues against your point. Consider the first sentence in the paragraph you selectively quote from: The word which constantly comes to my mind when considering the game is "humane.". Then consider the last sentence, after describing all of the painful problems with RPGS and the liklihood of them being encountered in WoW: I doubt it.
Blizzard has told us that things won't be arbitrary. You collect X consumable to craft Y item and it works everytime, the same. They've pointed out that help is around the corner (from bright exclamation points over people heads who want to talk to you, to minimaps that show the way). So, while it may be a MMORPG (with all that entails), it'll be one of the most polished and user friendly games out there...
There's this thing called context. There's another thing called 'expediency' or maybe 'need to know.'
I haven't been following WoW much, and the alpha/beta not all all, but I was able to tell from context that a 'push' was specific testing for those character classes. (The new beta is in a push of the 'good' races. Humans Dwarves Taurens, etc, no orcs or goblins.)
Also, exactly what is meant by a 'push' is irrelevant to the point of his article. He could have been extra wordy, or explain to much. Or he could just leave it as 'not important' as it is.
Sure, it's not going to win him any Pulitzers, but his point was to give out information, not entertain anyone with his prose. For what it's worth, he could have just given an outline that was entirely jargon and it would have accomplished his goals.
--Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
Slightly OT, but to allow everyone to better educate themselves, do check out Puzzle Pirates. Amazing stuff. They give you a nice long free (no-CC) demo too. Spot on with that comment. All the social aspect, but you can participate with anyone at level and still be successful. It even has PvP! Worthy of any MMORPG discussion.
First and foremost, it is a game, not a "world". All the attempts at turning MMOGs into worlds have resulted in boring sand-box style spaces where people have nothing to do. Puzzle Pirates and A Tale in the Desert are another two excellent examples of why massively multiplayer games should be games.
The polish on this game in the Beta stage is better than Star Wars Galaxies was 4 months after launch. By the time it is released for public consumption, it will join Final Fantasy XI in rivaling Everquest for interesting content.
I don't understand why people are scoffing at WoW for not being revolutionary. Of course not! We're only at the Third Generation of MMOGs here. Hell, Everquest is still the game with the largest player population. World of Warcraft is one really big step in the right direction though.
Shameless self promotion: Check out my first Beta Journal entry at MMORPGDot.
Warcraft 1 was an almost perfect copy of Dune 2. A copy isn't a "revolution".
They only made a really fun RTS with Warcraft 2, and Starcraft is brilliant.
The Tlog - a technology blog
And it runs on Linux, too!
The Tlog - a technology blog
There's also A Tale in the Desert. Which also runs on linux.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
I read the article a few days ago (the first time it was posted), so I don't recall all the terms used, but the two you asked about:
mez = mesmerize (charm/stun/immobilize sort of thing)
DPS = damage per second (measure of how rapidly you can put the hurt on a monster)
If you want anything else translated, just list it out and I'll be glad to.
Aggro = Aggravation. Essentially, the amount of hate a creature has towards a player. The player with the most hate (hopefully a warrior or similar) will therefore have aggro.
DoT exists in just about all MMORPGs these days - but usually refers to a damage over time spell or status effect.
DPS is the damage done over time with a weapon (usually, but can be magic too) and is calculated in seconds. Basically, DPS is calculated by taking a time fram and seeing how much damage you can inflict within that time frame, and then rounding it down to a few seconds. It doesn't necessarily mean one spell going the whole duration (like a DoT).
Because I beleive alienation is 'a bad thing' (tm)... here are some terms explained. If I missed anything, post it and someone (maybe me) will help ya out.
:P)
WoW - World of Warcraft (the game, duh)
Push - Phase
EQ - EverQuest
D&D - Dungeons & Dragons (Pen and paper, not MMORPG)
DAoC - Dark Age of Camelot
PVP - Player versus Player
PVE - Player versus Enemy
MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
RTS - Real Time Strategy
NPC - Non Player Character
XP - Experience (a measure of progress between character levels)
RP - Role Playing
Aggro - Aggression (when an enemy is focused on attacking you)
DPS - Damage Per Swing
AoE - Area of Effect
Root - An immobilization spell (not admin
Mangina - Derogitory slang for a male playing a female character (in this context anyways)
Mez - Mesmerize (stuns target for a set time, or until it is attacked)
HP - Hit Points
AC - Armour Class
emote - (electronic-motion ?) A special command that causes your character to perform an animation (like waving, cheering, bowing, etc)
Happy, er.. reading!
Zelda wasn't exactly the example I was thinking of. I was thinking of games similar to the Mana series from Squaresoft(including Secret of Mana, and the earlier gameboy game that was relabeled 'Final Fantasy Adventure' for the US release). I'm pretty certain the Mana series predates Diablo, and your stats do determine accuracy in those games, as opposed to the Zelda games where players twitch skill plays a mutch larger role.
Admittedly, this still leaves Diablo as the first action RPG that is heavier on the RPG side of the scale and uses randomly generated levels...
They haven't shifted anything, you can choose to not do any quests, and instead just kill monsters. That's a valid way to advance. I would say most people prefer doing quests.
Certainly to advance you do need to either complete quests or farm xp, there is no third option for advancement. If you don't enjoy doing either, you won't enjoy advancement.
It's not clear to me from your comment exactly what it is you find unenjoyable about WOW questing. You describe the quests as not meaning much to your character. The quests definitely are race and locale specific, they tell stories, they have plot lines. I would say the quests are mostly well written and meaningful. I'm not sure how exactly how an MMO quest could be made fundamentally more meaningful.
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